You don’t have business seeking Presidency if you can’t pay N100m – APC National Chairman
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu says anyone who cannot afford the N100m presidential nomination and expression of interest forms of the party does not have any business contesting.
Adamu was speaking in an interview with Voice of America on Wednesday.
The party had been under attack after it fixed its expression of interest form at N30m and nomination form at N70m for the presidency.
Adamu, however, said anyone who has what it takes to be president of Nigeria should have enough supporters who can foot the bill for him.
“If a presidential aspirant cannot mobilise at least ten thousand supporters to raise such amount that person is not a serious contestant.
“We are talking about the president of Nigeria, not the emir of your town. Now when the emir of your town dies the person seeking to replace him will spend more than N100 million for just one emirate,” Adamu said.
“For example, someone who is seeking to be president of Nigeria asked 10,000 of his supporters each to contribute N10,000, how much will that be. If he lacked supporters to contribute, he didn’t deserve to contest. I didn’t want to belittle you because the president of Nigeria is not the chairman of your village motor park.”
He said those saying the party was supporting corruption with the price of its forms were just out to give the party a bad name.
“If you want to kill a dog you will give him a bad name. There is nothing to compare between seeking to be Nigeria’s president and corruption using the cost of the form.
“If you can not participate, there is no compulsion, if you don’t have N100m you have no business with becoming president. Tell me which country will not fix reasonable numbers to contest the position of the president? No country that practices democracy like ours will not fix the amount to around N100million. In fact, how much is N100million?
“Even in the recent France election, how much did Macron pay? How much did Le pen pay to participate? How much did president Joe Biden pay in America? How much did former President Donald Trump pay? This is just an attempt to dent our image, it is the opposition party that is doing that. It will not change our minds or reduce the cost of the nomination form. Anyone that wants to participate let him participate, that is the amount. When I was seeking to be the National Chairman of APC I paid N20 million, and other aspirants paid the same.
“Our party has principles, if you can follow the guidelines you can participate.
“And another thing is our party is the ruling party. If we fix the amount less, the same opposition can sponsor some people to come and participate before you know court cases will arise everywhere. Let’s see if any devil can pay N100million to sponsor some,” he added.
